May 28-31, 2013 - Middle School

Would you like to create a story, interactive art, or a 2D game like pong? Would you like to make a musical pickle? Would you like to see how fast you react to a sound or a light? During this week of camp you will use free software from MIT called Scratch to create 2D animations and games. You will use PicoCrickets to make digital arts and crafts that react to sound, light, and touch. For more information on Scratch see http://scratch.mit.edu. For more information on PicoCrickets see http://www.picocricket.com/. You will do hands on activities that will introduce you to computing concepts such as repetition (loops), conditionals, variables, and random numbers.

Tuesday
9:00am Do a CS Unplugged Activity - error detection and correction card trick (see http://www.csunplugged.org/error-detection). Be sure to let kids try it on each other too.
9:30am - 10:30am Scavenger Hunt
10:30-11am Challenge the kids to create something from a school or park with the pico crickets.
11am-12pm Introduce Scratch
Explain that Scratch is free software created at MIT that lets you create 2D animations, interactive art, and games. Show the Scratch website http://scratch.mit.edu. Show the students the support page at http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/ and the video page at http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Videos. Have them view the "How to use Scratch intro" video (the one on the right). Show them how to open the Examples folder and look at the Animation folder and pick 8-DayDream and in the Music and Dance folder show them 6 BreakDance and maybe 2 ChickenNoodleSoup. Then show them how to do start a Scratch project using the green flag and how to end it with the red stop sign. Show them where to find the documentation on a Scratch project (in the File menu). Give them about 30 minutes to just open and play with Scratch projects. You can also show them the Scratch cards (at http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards) and have them try out one of the ideas from a Scratch card.
12-12:30pm Lunch break
12:30-2:30pm Show how to create a simple 2d animation in Scratch http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/197. Have the kids create their own 2d animations and show them to the group.
2:45pm Ask for questions from the day